Jackson Heights Life

I had to laugh becuase I pay exaclty the same for rent ($1,550) and I have a bedroom with a door, a huge living room, a nice kitchen, big windows, a modern bathroom, hardwood floors, room for guests, a cool neighborhood, a 17 minute commute to midtown, and, best of all, big lion statues guarding the entrance to my building.  I lived in Manhattan for 3 years and then finally got wise and moved to Jackson Heights.

Here another story of a tiny apartment in Manhattan.  This one is only 175 sq. ft. and was purchased recently for $150,000.

Cozy-crazy couple makes tight all right in the city's tiniest studio

I guess it's great if it works for them, but there are a bunch of things in that article that seem really strange to me beyond just having a small apartment.  I don't understand their system of picking up their work clothes on their way into work every day.  Is this because they don't have a closet at home?  I just can't really get how that would work.  Also, the idea of not owning a trash can and having to go out to the trash chute every time you want to thrown away anything, like a tissue, is weird.  The whole thing is weird....but hey, a chacun son gout!

The clothing thing is odd, but I can only imagine that closet space is absolutely out of the question in such a tiny space.  From reading the article, it appears as if they don't have a closet...that would explain the daily morning visits to the dry cleaners.  The wife does say she has a back-up plan by keeping some items at her job.  Their whole set-up would be too stressful for me to endure.

I have a friend that recently gave up an apartment on the corner of 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  It was a large 4 bedroom that had 2 additional rooms as servants' quarters.  These rooms are tiny, so the fact that someone converted something similar into individual apartments is amazing.  I guess there's a market for that.

I hate the idea of having to step out of the apartment to change my mind!!!!!!  LOL

 :2funny: :2funny: :2funny:

This couple has only 50 square feet more than the couple in Morningside Heights, who keep their clothing at the dry cleaner and don't have a trash can.  I wonder why it seems like so much more than an extra 50 square feet. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/02/realestate/20070902_HABI_SLIDESHOW_index.html

i could never ever do that....

i grew up in a 700 square foot space with my mom and grandma and never really knew it was cramped because everyone else around had the same sort of living environment. when i got into my older teens and broadened my horizons, i made a promise to myself that i would always value space above all else. so when i moved out on my own at 17-18, i lived in a series of really big places in really bad areas -- a huge three bedroom off avenue D in the far far east village, a three bedroom in bed-stuy, a really big two bedroom right on newtown creek in a crappy part of greenpoint.

i've been fortunate enough to maintain big spaces since, although i've been in nicer realms -- astoria, then two places in JH. i cannot imagine cutting my living space by 80 percent for the "convenience" of living in a part of manhattan that's as far from midtown as we are!

NY Time's Home and Garden section did a feature on a 178 sq foot apartment in Clinton Hill

A Roomy 178 Square Feet

THE tins of seasoning on top of Zach Motl’s refrigerator — Old Bay, Hungarian paprika, Madras curry powder — are for show only, chosen for their graphic punch and nifty typefaces. Living in a room that’s only 178 square feet, you don’t want to cook much, Mr. Motl said; it’s just too odoriferous. He once made French onion soup, and the apartment smelled for four days. “It was gross,” he said.

Mr. Motl, a junior designer at Robert Couturier & Associates, has a sailor’s sense of thrift and handiness. More Photos »
But Mr. Motl, 25, has made the most of this studio apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which he rents for $944 a month, and has outfitted for about $2,500 in the three years since he moved to New York City. He has hewed to the old decorating dictum that says the more stuff you put in a room (albeit artfully arranged stuff), the bigger it seems. More really is more.

Click link for full article and slide show